By Jacqueline L. Urgo, The Philadelphia InquirerKnight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Oct.
16, 2004 - ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- It is the struggle of the $8-an-hour
workers versus the multibillion-dollar casino industry that is being
played out in the streets, meeting rooms and gaming floors of this
gambling mecca.

It is a war of words, picketing civil
disobedience, and a blitz of newspaper and radio ads. The casino
strategy is to claim the strike has had no effect on its business and
that it will hold out until the union agrees to a five-year pact. Local
54 of Unite Here counters that its members -- the 10,000 service
industry workers who make beds, serve drinks, clean restrooms, and
perform other jobs at seven of Atlantic City's 12 casinos -- will not
return to work until they have a three-year contract that will bring
them in line with unionized gaming workers in other states.

State
and local officials, however, are worried that a prolonged strike will
have a harmful economic effect on New Jersey's $2.3 billion gaming
industry, which directly employs 45,000 workers and indirectly creates
jobs for 30,000 other state residents.

Nationally, the number
of prolonged strikes by large numbers of unionized workers has been on
the decline since the 1970s, as the size of organized labor has shrunk.

"I think it's very clever on the part of the union to use this
tactic of pitting itself against the huge, corporate gaming
structures," said Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "It's really a new
and noteworthy development in labor disputes. The big corporate giant
against the little working person is a hot-button issue right now. And
that's something that a lot of people, in any industry, union or
nonunion, can relate to."

A negotiation session between the
union and casino operators yesterday -- the first formal talks since
the Oct. 1 walkout -- ended abruptly after less than 90 minutes. No new
talks are set.

A third major rally is planned for today by the
union that is expected to snarl traffic from one end of town to the
other and attract up to 10,000 union members from all over the East
Coast. The march down Pacific Avenue and on the Boardwalk will be led
by hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean.

State Sen. William Gormley (R.,
Atlantic) is working behind the scenes to bring both sides to the
table. State Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), chairman of the
Senate Labor Relations Committee, said yesterday that he was
considering legislative hearings to resolve the dispute.

"If
this strike isn't settled soon and both parties agree to bargain in
good faith -- which is key -- then we are going to have to call for
hearings on the matter," Sweeney said.

Sweeney said that people
affiliated with Atlantic City's gaming industry have told him that
revenue at the casinos has declined since the strike began.

"It
looks like the casino industry is willing to take short-term losses to
gain the long-term advantage of having people work without health
benefits and a decent wage," he said.

The casinos, in newspaper
ads and at the bargaining table, appear willing to compromise on fully
paid health care, wage increases and limits on sub-contract employees
but not on the length of the contract.

"We've offered what we
believe is a fair and equitable package, and we think it's time for the
union to put the package we have offered to a vote among its members,"
said Robert Stewart, a spokesman for Caesars Entertainment.

By
closing off blocks of hotel rooms, serving meals on disposable plates
and limiting the number of open restaurants, gifts shops and restrooms,
the casinos say, they are getting along just fine without a full
complement of staff.

Despite the strike, which has nonunion
secretaries subbing as servers and managers making beds, casino
operators say they are coming off a record revenue win in September --
before the strike started -- that seems to be extending into October.

The
casinos have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising in
the local newspaper, the Press of Atlantic City, with almost-daily
full-page ads.

Some of the ads have been directed at patrons,
announcing the casinos are open and ready to receive guests. Other ads
contend the union is "using" its members to gain power by holding out
on accepting a deal being proffered by the gaming companies. The latest
ad claimed that as many as 1,000 -- a tenth of those on strike -- had
returned to work.

The union maintains that less than 300
workers have crossed the picket lines and it will hold out for a
three-year deal that would allow it the same contract expiration date
as the 60,000-member Culinary 226 in Las Vegas.

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